Ten Ways to Break Out From the Pack

What you think about most you become and those same things will manifest for you. Here are ten action strategies you can apply to either your business or yourself.

1. Act! You are more than just think about, wish about; you must act! Successful people are action-oriented. Good grades, great knowledge, and innovative ideas mean little without putting them into action. Fear and caution stifle many dreams. Have they affected yours?

2. Be unique, new and fresh, what’s different and provide people with something they feel they need or want. You can’t blend in or be all things to all people, so specialize. Prospects don’t care about what they already know; they are enticed by you providing them with a solution or an edge. Anyone is and can be unique. What’s new? Be special. Get over your own personal inhibitions because people connect with people know like and trust; they buy into you as a person. Stand out in some manner.

3. Become sensational creating curiosity in the minds and hearts of your prospects and customers. Enthusiasm sells in any economy; “average” is forgotten and bypassed. Become an Expert at something and publicize it. The first step is to be unforgettable. Don’t hesitate to be outrageous in a healthy, positive way. Be that which people want to get more of. Same is lame. Boring is invisible. Average people and average companies get average results – at best.

Be interested in other people. Dare to be different, and fun. Be willing to take risks, make mistakes, and try new things, but also be creditable, trustworthy, and dependable. In other words, it is not enough to be worth talking about; you must also be worth recommending.

4. Listen and get to know your customer. Selling is not an informational dump, rather it is probing, discovering, and filling needs better than the customer had anticipated or expected. You will never understand your target’s needs unless you ask and listen and watch intently for the said or unsaid answers. Besides, you can’t explain anything to your prospect until they are ready to listen. So the # 1 secret of selling is to ask questions and listen; don’t talk.

Engage, be a human being who cares about the prospects desires. Don’t explain how your offering works until your prospect is ready to listen.

5. Use “Personal Caring” as your secret advantage as it builds rapport and relationships, and people do business with those they trust, respect, and like. It has often been said that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Focus on your customer’s desires, educate, and then follow-up with care-based, rather than cost-based thinking. The results or lack of them will make the difference.

6. People love to do business with Experts. It’s the difference between being a generalist and a specialist. If you are a special or celebrity expert, all the better. People pay more for the specialist, and in the end are usually more satisfied after working with one. Hence, they are more likely to tell others.

Get up an hour earlier, study, and become that expert. Study and research everything about your field. Understand that you know more about your field that most anyone else in the world. The confidence you develop in your preparation will quietly show and signal you as an expert.

People like to brag about their decisions and you make that easier when you become that expert. They buy from emotions and then back up their buying decision with logic. Greed, joy, safety, pain, hope, relief, belonging, recognition, and gain/convenience are really the powerful motivators. Price not a motivating factor unless there is nothing else to choose from. Logic goes out the window in effective marketing. Logic seldom changes minds when there is the emotions lock in on something.

7. Target your audience of prospective clients or customers. You can’t do business with everyone, so determine who most wants the product or service you have to offer. Then target them. It is better to a big fish in a little pond as opposed to getting swamped in the ocean. In that way, you are better able to hone your message to match your target’s needs, wants, and desires. What’s more, you’ll be able to more effectively increase your credibility and visibility with a small group more quickly than with a big one. Focused attention wins every time.

8. Know what sets you apart or makes you different and special. What is your strategic, competitive or unique advantage? Understand what benefits and emotional appeals you, your service or product delivers to your target audience. Lock onto that in your marketing messaging, and stay with it. Know your target’s emotional needs and desires and keep your message keyed to that – as opposed to pricing, imaging, or extraneous features.

9. Get to really know your customers and make dealing with you a safe, secure rewarding experience. Do you offer guarantees of some sort in your business offerings? In your personal life, is your word gold? Take a long-term approach to building revenue as viewing the sales interaction not as a sale, but establishing a long term relationship with a new customer. How might you better serve them? Focus your advertising on the creation of a meaningful new relationship with that target and be patient. And should you mess up, apologize and make things right with your customer as soon as possible.

10. Be and have fun! People like to be entertained and again enthusiasm sells! Make your customer love and/or appreciate you immensely. Business should and can be fun for both the people serving or being served. Is it any accident that people are constantly drawn back to my previous employer Southwest Airlines or a place like Seattle’s Pike Place Fish Market? Playing practical jokes, entertaining, and educating in different manner works. People want excitement! Defy Gravity. Yes, do mix business and pleasure.

So what do you need more to focus upon and incorporate into your life or business?

Bob Fagan features one of the most interesting backgrounds in travel and golf. Not only it is likely that Bob has played more American golf courses than any living person, he has been an accomplished player and instructor, holds a Ph.D. in Counseling, has been an innovative golf and life coach, PGA Section Executive Director, golf company executive, "Expert Golf Witness," and, of course, a highly acclaimed travel and golf writer.